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THE GREENSANDS OF NEW JERSEY.
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who was sent out in 1749 under the auspices of the Royal Academy of Sciences to make a study of the various branches of natural history in America, presents many interesting observations concerning the deposits under consideration. He spent much of his time in New Jersey.

In 1777, Dr. Johann David Schoepf[1] of Germany, visited America in order to study the geological features of the eastern portion of the continent. His observations and comparisons of the coastal plain formations, especially of New Jersey, mark considerable advance over those of Kalm. The importance of his investigations have not been very generally recognized by later writers, but he showed a remarkably keen insight into the geology of eastern America which was lacking on the part of some of his successors.

The first attempt at a correlation of the deposits of New Jersey with the geological column then established in Europe was made by William Maclure[2] in 1809, in his "Observations upon the Geology of the United States." In this publication the coastal deposits of New Jersey are collectively referred to the "Alluvial formation," the fourth of the main divisions of geological strata proposed by Werner. The work was subsequently revised and enlarged, appearing in book form in 1817.[3]

Professor John Finch was the first to propose a division in the coastal plain deposits of New Jersey. In his "Geological Essay on the Tertiary Formations in America" he states that what has been called the "Alluvial formation" by earlier writers "is identical and contemporaneous with the newer Secondary and Tertiary formations" of other portions of the globe.

A few years subsequent to this, Professor Lardner Vanuxem[4] through his friend Dr. S. G. Morton, presented the criteria for a

  1. ↑ Beiträge zur mineralogischen Kenntniss des östlichen Theils von Nord Amerika und seiner Gebürge.8vo, 1787, 194 pp. Erlangen.
  2. ↑ Amer. Phil. Soc. Trans. Vol. 6, 1809, pp. 411-428.Translation in Journal de Physique, Vol. 69, 1809, pp. 204-213 and Vol. 72, 1811, pp. 137-165.
  3. ↑ Philadelphia, 8vo, 130 pp.Also in Amer. Phil. Soc. Trans. new series, Vol. 1, 1817 pp. 1-92; and Leonard's Zeitschrift, Band 1, 1826, pp. 124-138.
  4. ↑ Amer. Jour. Sci. Vol. 7, 1824, pp. 31-43.
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